Needing Someone
by rawker-demyx
Summary: When Roxas starts college, he gets a parttime job to supplement his income. Working at the movie theater, at first, seems to be a rather boring affair, but he soon meets someone who will change his mind. [AkuRoku] [Zemyx] AU, Rated for future chapters


**Needing Something**

_Disclaimer_: Oh, so many, but I don't want to get my ass sued. Kingdom Hearts characters and story lines are property of Square Enix and Disney. Mac products and associated software are owned by Apple. Facebook is property of...well, Facebook. Pretty much nothing in here is owned by me except the plot of the story.

_Rating_: M/NC-17 (for future chapters)

_Summary_: Starting his first semester in college, Roxas gets a part-time job to supplement his income. Working at the movie theater, at first, seems to be a rather boring affair, but he learns to pass the time by making up stories in his head about the people he sees when he is there. However, when a certain redhead catches his eye, he is not certain what to think.

_Author Notes_: So, Roxas and Sora are college freshmen and Axel, Demyx, and Zexion are going to be college seniors (once we introduce them in the story). Um...I think that is all that is really necessary for me to point out right now. Oh, and _italics_ indicate thoughts.

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**Chapter 1: Needing a Job**

It seemed that Hollow Bastion had run out of jobs. It was as simple as that. Everywhere that Roxas had inquired at was either not hiring at the moment or he was not qualified for the job and he was becoming more and more concerned about his unfruitful search for employment. Financial aid would only hold up for a limited period of time and when it ran out he would be in trouble.

Sitting in his dorm room, he tried to think of anywhere else he could apply to work. He had moved into the dormitory two days ago and had immediately begun his search; now he was feeling hopeless. Sighing in anticipated defeat, he tried to think of anywhere he had not yet applied. He pulled out a pen and the sheet of paper where he had been writing down employment ideas and, a little belatedly, crossed out the last one he had had. While he gave the matter more consideration, he went over to a box, piled upon numerous other boxes, and rifled through it until he pulled out the DVD that he wanted. He had not quite unpacked yet as he had been so consumed with the search for a source of income, so he took out the essentials, such as his computer and a toothbrush, and left the rest in the boxes until his could get to them later.

Slipping the disc into the disc drive of his macbook, he sat down on the bed and began listening to one of the many movies he had collected over the years. Using the computer for background noise to drive away the oppressive silence, he focused his mind on the matter of getting a job. He had applied to book stores, one or two restaurants, and random stores at the mall, and still nothing. One of the problems he had to contend with is that he lacked a car and so he had to find a job somewhere that was either within biking distance or near a bus stop. Thankfully, Hollow Bastion had a superb bus system, so that had increased the number of place he could apply to, however he had nearly run through them all it seemed.

As he lay there in thought, time seemed to pass much faster than normal. Before he knew it, the Sun had started to set and the horizon outside his dorm room window became splashed with orange and gold hues as dusk approached. Roxas ran a hand through his blond hair in exasperation and stared down at the paper upon which he had written nothing new since he started this fruitless exercise. Looking up, he was surprised to see how late it had gotten.

"Better get some dinner," he mumbled dejectedly. He folded the paper up and stuffed it into the pocket of his jeans along with his pen. Locking the door to his room behind him, he headed down the hallway to the stairwell. One of the two dining halls on campus was located nearby, so he would just walk there to eat his evening meal. He slowly walked down the three flights of stairs from the floor of the residence hall he lived in, Ansem Hall, and began the trek towards the dining center. Though night would soon fall, the heat and humidity outside was very oppressive, his blond spikes starting to fall and a few beads of sweat starting to form on his skin.

As the semester did not begin for four more days, there were very few people out and about around the university. In fact, Roxas's roommate had not even arrived yet. The blond had decided to move in early to get a head start on finding a job and to take care of other important things such as buying books and figuring out where his classes are. He passed by one or two people during his walk and then finally arrived at his destination.

Walking into the dining hall, he made his way up to the cash register near the door. He actually had not eaten here yet, and so was not exactly sure what he was supposed to do. The woman standing at the register smiled kindly at him. She had the kind of eyes that one could lose themselves in as well as a plait of brown hair hanging behind her. Her name tag read "Aerith."

Still smiling, she asked, "Do you have your ID card?"

_Oh, yeah!_ The words flashed through Roxas's mind. They had told him at orientation that they could use their ID cards to purchase food on campus if they had bought a meal plan or they could put cash on the card to use too. For some reason, no place on campus used plain debit or credit cards, much to Roxas's irritation. Still his parents had seen fit to get him one of the meal plans, the one thing for which they had been able to pay. They were strapped for money, but they were concerned about his health while he was away so they saved until they had enough to buy him the "unlimited" meal plan. It had cost a pretty penny, but he could come and go from the dining halls and eat whenever he liked for the entire school year. It also came with a fixed amount of money that he could use at the other restaurants on campus outside of the dining halls. He dug in his pockets and finally pulled out the credit card sized piece of plastic. _If anything, I won't have to worry that I'll starve to death_.

Taking it from him, the woman, Aerith, looked at his picture and back at him to confirm it was the same person, then she swiped it through a card reader and handed it back to him. "Enjoy, Mr. Yamada1," she told him.

"Thanks," he replied, smiling a small smile and stepping past her and wandering into the middle of the rather large building. There were tables surrounded by chairs littered about, some small tables with only one or two chairs lining the walls, some with views through windows, while other, larger table meant to hold more people were littered about the room. Other rooms branched off of the main one that Roxas was standing in, and those contained even more tables. He figured that once the other students began arriving, the dining facility, with all of its room, would still be hard pressed to provide space for all of their customers.

Along the far wall, instead of tables, there was a counter lined with all kinds of food. He could make out a few different pizzas, a salad bar, some deserts, and a soda fountain. Next to the fountain, there seemed to be coffee and tea dispensers as well. There was even a small, free-standing counter a little bit away from the wall which supported a large, compartmentalized container which held different kinds of cereal as well as milk and orange juice dispensers. However, before he could get to either of the counters, he would pass by the island kitchen in the middle of the room. Approaching this, he scoped out what kinds of food they offered there. It appeared that they actually cooked food to order there and also had a menu that rotated daily. A schedule was posted on the counter in front of the cook, who was standing there looking rather bored. Glancing around, Roxas saw that there was only one other person in the dining hall, besides Aerith and the cook, whose name tag said "Tifa," and it was a boy sitting at a table in the corner reading a book, half-heartedly stirring a bowl of what the blond assumed was probably some kind of soup.

Stepping up to the counter of the island kitchen, Roxas looked down at the menu for the day. It said that the dinner for that day was stir-fry available with either chicken, beef, or tofu served over noodles or white rice. His eyebrow quirked in surprise at the level of choice available to him. "What will it be?" He heard the brunette behind the counter ask.

He looked up and, thinking it over, decided, "Tofu. With noodles please." The girl nodded in response and informed him that it would be about seven or eight minutes. While he waited, Roxas went to grab a drink, iced raspberry tea, and took a seat near a window. He pulled out his list of potential jobs and contemplated it for a few minutes. Still unable to think of anything, he stood up and wandered back over to the counter where Tifa was just finishing preparing his dinner. He accepted it with a "thank you" and then went back to his table. Sighing, he grabbed his cup, which he had not even noticed was nearly empty, and left to refill it. Sitting back down, he went back to his list, once in a while forking a random vegetable or piece of tofu and chewing on it distractedly.

Eventually, he sighed in defeat and resigned himself to just finishing his dinner. He would have to give it more thought the next day. He finished his dinner in quiet contemplation. A few more people came and went from the dining hall while he was there, but it was clearly a slow night. Taking his last bite and gulping down the rest of his tea, he picked up his tray and walked over to the place he had seen the few other patrons who had come in drop off their used trays. Putting it down, he made his way to the exit and left the dining hall.

While he was eating, the Sun had finished setting and night had fallen over Hollow Bastion. The harsh glare from the street lights that sparsely lined the streets of the university made it impossible to see as many stars as he could at home in Twilight Town, but he could still make out a few familiar sights. Stopping to gaze at the stars, Roxas's face adopted a wistful expression. A sudden, thin beam of light streaked across the sky and Roxas whipped around to follow it until it simply disappeared in the middle of the sky. Thinking it was somewhat childish to wish upon a shooting star, he still did it anyway just in case.

The rest of the trip back to his dorm was rather uneventful. There were still barely any people milling about, so the walk passed in practical silence. He climbed up the stairs of Ansem Hall and opened the door to his hallway. Walking up to his door, he put the key in the lock and turned it, but noticed that the door was already unlocked. Perplexed, a not a little worried, Roxas cautiously turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door. Blue eyes blinked in surprise at another pair of blue eyes.

Boxes upon boxes now littered the entirety of the room instead of being merely isolated to Roxas's half of the dorm. And in the middle of it all was a boy about Roxas's height and with the same color blue eyes, but dark brown, spiky hair adorned his head instead of blond. He was wearing a carefree grin upon his face as he held out his hand to Roxas.

"Hi, there," he said. Taking Roxas's hand, he continued with his introduction, "The name's Sora. Sora Aoi2. It's nice to meet you." Looking around the room, he added with a sly grin, "Looks like we'll be stuck together for the next nine months."

Roxas gave a small laugh and replied, "Looks like it."

And so Roxas helped Sora unpack his things. Going through the other boy's possessions helped him to learn a lot about his roommate. It turned out they had several things in common: similar movies on DVD, a fondness for the some of the bands, even somewhat similar styles of clothes, although Sora did not have anything with a checkerboard pattern to it, which was inexcusable to Roxas. While going through Sora's boxes, Sora had started to unpack several of Roxas's things as well saying that it was "only fair." After everything was unpacked and boxes were discarded, both boys turned to their respective sides of the room and immediately moved everything around.

"There," Sora states matter-of-factly, "that's much better."

"I concur," Roxas agreed. Both boys laughed at themselves when this was said. It seemed that they were going to get along just fine. Roxas had heard horror stories about college roommates. He had been afraid that he was going to get stuck with someone that was a slob, a pervert, or a religious fanatic who prayed for anyone they deemed abnormal. _Well, the first one's a bit of a stretch...I can be a bit lazy sometimes and not clean. _Sora seemed pretty normal to him, but even Roxas admitted that he himself was not all that normal. Still, they would probably be really good friends.

It was still rather early in the evening, so Sora suggested that they do something together, however he seemed to be a dry well when it came to suggestions for activities. Thinking aloud, Roxas said, "Well, I already ate."

"Me too," Sora piped up. "With my parents just before they dropped me off here."

Roxas continued his verbal pondering, "Book store?"

"Are they open this late?" Sora asked in response.

"Hmm...probably not." Roxas gave it more thought. "How about a walk around campus?"

Sora's eyes widened in response. "Are you insane?!? At this time of night?"

Roxas glanced over at the alarm clock next to his bed. The red, digital numbers told him that some time had passed since he had gone to dinner and that it was, in fact, getting rather late. There was probably no harm in walking around the campus at this time of night, but it was still better to be safe than sorry. Heeding Sora's words, Roxas abandoned the idea and tried to think of something else. He took a look around the dorm room for some kind of inspiration and, in his search, his eyes fell on something lying on his bed.

After a moment or two, a sharp jab to the ribs knocked him back into reality. "Ouch! What is it?" He squeaked.

"Just making sure you're still with me here." Sora told him.

"Yeah," Roxas said. "Yeah, I'm still here. Just thinking is all." He paused for a second and then pitched his idea. "What about a movie? I remember passing a movie theater not too far from here with my parents when I was moving into the dorm."

"That would be cool...what's playing?" Sora asked.

It was a valid question and Roxas went to find an answer to it immediately. He grabbed his macbook off of his desk and took it over to his bed. Sitting down and opening the laptop, he went searching for movie show times at the Hollow Bastion Kingdom Theater. "What about 'Revenge of the Zombie Vampire Turkeys?'"

Sora snorted at the ridiculousness of the movie title and Roxas gave a small laugh in return. "I think my I.Q. just dropped a few points from even hearing those words in the same sentence." At Sora's words, Roxas laughed even more.

"Well," Roxas began, "I know it's really kind of dorky, but I really wanted to see this one movie."

Sora waited expectantly for Roxas to continue. When no more speech seemed forthcoming, he said, "Yeah? Which one?"

Roxas's laugh turned nervous as he told Sora, "'Ratatouille3?'"

Sora's ever-present grin widened considerably at the suggestion. It seemed it was decided that they would go to see "Ratatouille." There was a show time in a little over an hour, so that would give them plenty of time to get ready before they had to leave. While Sora did not feel comfortable wandering around campus at this time of night, he would have to deal with walking down to the bus stop. Luckily, the buses ran until three in the morning, and the movie started at eleven.

The two boys got ready, grabbing various things they would need: money, student ID cards to get on the bus, and cell phones. After going through what little foodstuffs they had between them, Roxas and Sora also packed a few snacks in Roxas's messenger bag to take to the movie. They felt a little bad about cheating the theater out of money, but the concessions were ridiculously priced and Roxas was on a budget. Finally, they headed outside to the bus stop. Roxas closed and locked the door before leading the way down the stairs, Sora striding along next to him.

Waiting for the bus took about ten minutes and, when it got there, the two students climbed aboard and flashed their ID cards to the driver. They grabbed seats near the back of the bus and started to pass the time it took to get to the theater by talking about their upcoming first semester of college. It turned out that Sora was in the College of Business and would be taking at least one course with Roxas: Pre-calculus. The conversation turned next to what each of the was hoping to get out of going to Radiant Garden University and what they would do after they graduated. Roxas giggled at Sora's mumbled response of "Uh 'unno," which came complete with a half shrug.

As they approached their destination, Roxas pulled on the cord that would notify the driver to let them off at the next stop. When they stepped down off of the bus, they found themselves standing just across the parking lot from the movie theater. There were only a few cars there as, Roxas reminded himself, that most students from the university had not arrived in town yet. They took their time crossing the lot since they had arrived faster than they had expected.

Sidling up to the ticket window, Roxas went first and asked for a student ticket while flashing his ID card to the rather disinterested looking girl behind the glass. After he paid thirty-seven and fifty munny4, an exorbitant amount in his opinion, Sora stepped up to the window and was equally robbed of his munny. They then headed inside, whispering between themselves, in a hushed tone so as not to be overheard, about "how much of a rip off that was."

Thankfully, they had sneaked in their own snacks and such because when they passed the concession stand in the middle of the lobby Roxas actually swore at the sight of how much a small popcorn was. "Holy mother of fuck!" Sora's head whipped around at the sudden exclamation. "Twenty munny for some popcorn?!?" He felt himself being steered away by a mortified looking Sora towards the theater in which their movie was playing.

And so, Sora and Roxas watched "Ratatouille." If one had been inside the theater with them, one would have heard raucous laughter and a little foul language coming from a certain blond haired boy. No one complained, however, as Sora and Roxas were alone in the theater. Too soon, though, the movie was over and it was time to go home.

On their way out of the movie theater, Roxas was met with a not too small surprise. Inspiration all but smacked Roxas upside the head when he saw a small sign near the customer service desk in the lobby. It said two simple words, but Roxas thought they might be the greatest two words he had ever read: Now hiring. He nearly sprinted over to the desk, while trying to keep some sense of professionalism if he at all hoped to get a job there, and asked for an application.

"Sure thing, sweety." A girl, who wore a black blazer, behind the desk told him. He found it a bit odd that she had called him "sweety" since they had never met before nor did she look like someone's grandmother. "Oh, one second, I need to go print some. I'll be right back." And she got up and left, leaving Roxas alone for the moment.

Sora had finally caught up to him, since he had refused to move any faster than a normal pace, and now stood next to him in front of the counter. "What's up?" The brunet asked as he fidgeted with one of the dark brown spikes adorning his head.

"Just had an idea," the blond replied, his finger pointing towards the sign that had called to him.

Sora merely looked towards the sign and seemed to ponder something for a moment. The girl who had gone off to pick up some applications returned at that point, a whole stack of papers in her hand. _Please tell me that's not one application_, Roxas thought.

"Here you are," she said, handing him one sheet of paper off the top of the stack.

"Actually," Sora piped up, flashing her a winning smile, "can I get one of those too?"

She smiled at Sora in return and handed over one of the papers to him too. "You bet'cha!"

"Got a pen?" Roxas inquired.

The look on the girl's face was almost comical when Roxas said this. She started to rifle through everything on the desk. "Pens are like gold around here," she said. Finally, after it looked like the desk could not get any more chaotic, she pulled out a pen from the mess. "Can you guys share?"

Sora and Roxas sized each other up and, with a laugh, Roxas said, "I dunno...I don't think he plays well with others!" Suddenly, Roxas felt another slap to the head, like when he had seen the "Now hiring" sign, but this time it turned out to be a literal slap.

The brunet put his hand down and calmly stated, a look of utter seriousness on his face, "I can play with anyone just fine." A few seconds of silence passed and then Roxas and the other girl burst into laughter. Sora's serious expression cracked when he realized the double entendre he had uttered.

Roxas and Sora quickly retreated over to a small table in the lobby so they could fill out the forms. It did not take the two of them too long to finish. When they were done, they wandered back over to the customer service desk and turned in the applications. Sora was ready to leave but, pausing to think for a second, Roxas turned around and asked the girl a question just as some other person who worked there, a man in another black jacket, came up next to her behind the desk. He had blond spiky hair similar to Roxas's, but all of his spikes were on one side of his head.

"Another quick question," he said. She looked back up at his voice and he said, "I was just wondering when we would hear back about the applications." Sora just stood there looking a bit awkward with nothing to do while Roxas took the initiative to ask the question.

"Well, actually," she started to say. She smiled and indicated the man standing next to her who seemed to be looking for something in the mess on the desk. "This is Cloud. He's the manager in charge of hiring."

The blond man looked up and flashed both boys a dazzling smile. He took the applications from the girl, whose gold name tag Roxas now saw said "Yuffie Kisaragi," and looked them over quickly. "Well," he said, "these both appear to be pretty decent." He seemed to be thinking something over for a second and then picked up a notebook and looked up something. Roxas saw the spine of the notebook read "Employee Schedule." "Would you like to come in for an interview on...well, how about tomorrow?" He shut the notebook and looked back at the two students. "Is that fine with both of you?"

Roxas did not have any plans, so he nodded his head in assent. He looked to Sora who seemed to be thinking if that was alright with him. Eventually he nodded his head as well. Cloud told them to be there are seven in the evening and they would have an interview. Assuming that was satisfactory, which Cloud said he could not imagine why it would not be just fine, they would have training a few days later and start working.

The blond boy walked out of that movie theater with a weight lifted off of his shoulders. Hopefully, that time the following week, he would be gainfully employed. And, even better, he had a roommate that he felt he could be really good friend with and who had applied for the same job with him. _Maybe we'll work at the same time together. That'd be awesome!_ Roxas just felt like smiling right about then, and he did not think the smile would be going away anytime soon.

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1 The name Yamada is presently listed on Wikipedia as the thirteenth most popular surname in Japan, chosen for Roxas's place in Organization XIII.

2 "Aoi" is the Japanese word for "blue." When put together with Sora's name, one gets "blue sky," or "sky blue" depending on how one orders his name.

3 I've really wanted to see this movie personally, and it seems like something Sora and Roxas would like. And it's owned by Disney, so it works.

4 The conversion from munny to U.S. dollars is $1.00 §5.00. I chose this rather arbitrarily...mostly by thinking of the prices of certain items in the shops in the game and thinking how much they might cost if they were real. Also, I randomly chose the munny symbol.

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_Author's Notes_: Well, I got through chapter one. How'd everyone like it? I'm not going to hold chapters ransom for reviews or anything, but leaving a review is a nice thing to do.

I really did enjoy writing this. I feel bad because I've kinda been in hiding for a while, but I have good reasons, I promise! My last year of college just started up, so I'm a bit busy, but I'm hoping to get semi-regular updates to this and "A Heart to Call My Own" posted.

So, like I said, please review! And stay tuned for an update. Axel should be showing up soon. We'll see what happens. XD


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